Jeri Smith-Ready

Friday, May 28, 2010

You may remember this week's Girlfriends Cyber Circuit guest from last year's Blogtoberfest, when I squeed over her Rita-nominated Going Too Far. Ladies and gentlemen...Jennifer Echols!

*applause, catcalls, rattly noisemakers*

Anyway, Jenn is here to introduce her latest book from Simon Pulse, Endless Summer. Is that a cute/hot/awesome (chawsome? yes, it's a chawsome) cover or what?

Endless Summer came out three days ago, and if after you read about it here, it doesn't seem like the perfect vacation book to you, then I can't help what ails you. Some serious deficit of fun-sense, I guess.

ANYWAY (again), here's the skinny, the dope, the lowdown, the [insert other totally outdated slang words for information] on Endless Summer:

Coming May 25: ENDLESS SUMMER by Jennifer Echols

The Boys Next Door and the sequel, Endless Summer, in one volume!

Two irresistible boys. One unforgettable summer.

Lori can't wait for her summer at the lake. She loves wakeboarding and hanging with her friends--including the two hotties next door. With the Vader brothers, she's always been just one of the guys. Now that she's turning sixteen, she wants to be seen as one of the girls, especially in the eyes of Sean, the older brother. But that's not going to happen--not if the younger brother, Adam, can help it.

Lori plans to make Sean jealous by spending time with Adam. Adam has plans of his own for Lori. As the air heats up, so does this love triangle. Will Lori's romantic summer melt into one hot mess?

Jennifer Echols grew up in a small town on a beautiful lake in Alabama--a setting that has inspired many of her books. Always interested in creative writing, she finished her first (and still unpublished) novel soon after graduating with a degree in English from Auburn University at age 20. She worked as an editor for newspapers, a writer for business publications, and a writing instructor for three major universities, completed a master's degree in English, and finished the coursework for a PhD in genre studies before selling a book.

Since then, she has written many young adult novels for Simon & Schuster, including Major Crush, which won the National Reader's Choice Award, and Going Too Far, which is a finalist in the 2010 RITA, the National Reader's Choice Award, and the Book Buyer's Best. Her next novel, Forget You, will be released on July 20. Currently she works as a copyeditor and lives in Birmingham with her husband and son. Please visit her online at jennifer-echols.com.

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And now, my interview with the fabulous Jennster herself:

If you could inhabit the life of any of your characters, enter their world and deal with it as that person, which one would you choose?

Oh man, I would love to live this book in the main character Lori’s shoes. I think that’s what made it so easy for me to write. There’s definitely some wish fulfillment going on here.

Yes, I would love to be able to wakeboard. Sounds like such a thrill! On the flip side, which of your characters would you most like to bring to life in our world (as a friend or a little bit more ;-) ?

Yeah, I could bring Adam back with me. I would constantly be beating the other chicks off, though.

That's always a pain (but probably worth it!). What's the weirdest tidbit of research you've ever incorporated into a book?

You can bet that all accidents and resulting medical procedures and treatments in my books are true-to-life, because my brother is an emergency room doctor and my sister-in-law is a nurse practitioner. I have trained them to answer my questions and cook up bizarre scenarios for me without asking why.

Always nice to have resources who don't ask questions. Speaking of questions, let's say there's a TV show, movie, or recording artist that has a cult of you. Which is it? (i.e., what do you like that no one else you know likes)?

Earth Wind & Fire. I have seen them in concert four times. I own all their albums up until 1987, when they came out with an album with no horns, just electronic keyboard stand-ins. What is Earth Wind & Fire without horns? I may have ceremonially unwound that cassette tape in my trash can. But the song “That’s the Way of the World” alone would be enough to make me love them forever. I forgive them. I think.

I love it--ceremonial unwinding of the cassette tape. There's just no MP3 equivalent to that. Last question: what's your earliest memory?

We lived in Atlanta until I was two, and I have a vivid memory of the avocado sculptured carpet and the wallpaper with lions and other zoo animals in my big brother’s bedroom.

Thanks, Jenn, and congratulations again on your new release! The next one's just around the corner in less than two months....

Everyone have a lovely Memorial Day weekend, and if you're in the Baltimore area tomorrow, consider stopping by Balticon to say hi to me and my science fiction/fantasy friends.

2 Comments:

Oh Jeri! You kill me!! I just brought home about 80 books from BEA and then you tell me about this one. I love Jennifer and Going to Far was one of my favorite books last year.I'm getting this but not telling the DH (hehe) it's just one of the massive pile! That's my story and I'm sticking to it :-)Great interview Jeri & Jennifer!